Stephanie Cage - Writer

What, No Pudding by Sheila North My rating: 5 of 5 stars I thoroughly enjoyed these stories by Sine fm presenter Sheila North. I'm particularly fond of Penelope, Queen of the Dole Queue. Sometimes it seems as if people in stories just don't live in the same world as us, but in this story Sheila North drags a mythical character kicking and screaming into reality. When Odysseus clears off on his round the world voyage, Penelope struggles to make ends meet, and soon finds herself pondering just how to answer the question about marital status on the benefit application form. Turf Wars similarly blends reality and fantasy, in an improbable but oh-so-entertaining account of garden fairies running wild in a South Yorkshire backwater. Then there are Bill the dragon and the defenestrated Bede.  I've been waiting a long time for a story which justifiably uses the word 'defenestrated'.  Sheila makes it worth the wait, with her charming tale of a nearly-flameless dragon...

This is exciting!  I'm starting a series of occasional (and hopefully, eventually, regular) Wednesday writer interviews - a chance for me and my blog readers to meet some interesting people and hopefully discover some great books that we wouldn't otherwise have found.  The series kicks off today with my friend, author and radio presenter Sheila North.   Welcome, Sheila.  Tell us a bit about your writing.  What have you had published? ‘The Woodcutter’s Son’ is my first published novel, and was published for the e-reader market late last year. Around the same time, my short story ‘Perfect for Her’ was selected for ‘Tales from the Circle’, a short story collection published by mywriterscircle.com as a fund raiser. A poetry pamphlet, ‘An American in South Yorkshire’, was published by Smith Doo rstop in the 1980s. I’ve had poetry published in both the US and UK. I worked for two years as a stringer, reporter, assistant editor and editor for a ...